I'd like to thank Stephanie and Ken for bringing up the topic of birds moving in summer. Many species move in significant numbers at this time of year -- far more than the modest level of birding activity suggests. Many of these birds are southbound migrants (Least Flycatcher, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Yellow Warbler) and others are likely birds moving shorter distances to molt or gain mass prior to migration. Surprisingly little is known about these late summer movements. For me, they have become one of the most interesting aspects of bird distribution.
I've mentioned on cayugabirds before that I have been taking part in the eBird Site Survey where I try to do the same counts as often as I can. This means that I watch from my yard most mornings for thirty minutes and have spent most evenings on the deck. I also do a couple loops through Monkey Run at least once a week. Here are some of the more interesting birds that Jessie and I have found at Monkey Run doing our eBird site surveys in the last couple of weeks. The list below includes species that we had not seen since the first week of June (along with the first date this "fall" that we detected them). This does include a couple species that we had seen in another part of Monkey Run, but which we are sure these are "new" individuals (adults only). Hooded Merganser (13 July) Black-billed Cuckoo (14 July) Solitary Sandpiper (15 July) Chimney Swift (19 July) Least Flycatcher (18 July) Eastern Kingbird (18 July) Blue-headed Vireo (18 July) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (27 July) Yellow Warbler (15 July -- date first obvious new individual arrived) Myrtle Warbler (24 July) Louisiana Waterthrush (15 July) Black-throated Green Warbler (27 July) Blackburnian Warbler (28 July) Canada Warbler (24 July) Eastern Towhee (28 July) Savannah Sparrow (27 July) -- probably detection issue at an area I don't check too often Indigo Bunting (27 July) Bobolink (15 July) I also must mention the numbers of House Finches that have been flying over each morning since about five days ago--yesterday I had a flock of nine, but each morning there have been singles, and small flocks. Before that, we hadn't seen or heard one in the yard since early June. The intent here is not to point out how great Monkey Run is, but to showcase how many interesting things we can find, literally in our own backyards by looking closely and taking note. There are some great natural areas that receive so little attention from the birding community -- think of all the Finger Lakes Land Trust properties and state forests that we are blessed with. I'm certain that eact of these would turn up equally interesting patterns (and rarities) with a similar level of effort. It's amazing to think what we could learn if everyone on Cayugabirds would pick a different spot and try to walk through there once a week (or more if you want). Then enter it in eBird, where everyone has access to the data and where there are a variety of tools to facilitate our ability to see these patterns, look at arrival dates and high counts--even at a very local level. Find out more about the eBird Site Survey here: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/eBird_Site_Survey Chris Wood eBird & Neotropical Birds Project Leader Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York http://ebird.org http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
